Dr. Richard Mungo, explains a procedure to neuro-typical patient Athena Nailon, 9. Dr. Robert Mungo treats both neurotypical and special needs children in his pediatric practice. He is the chairman of the board and clinical director of the Healthy Smiles clinic. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Huntington Beach dentist Dr. Richard Mungo is the chairman of the board and clinical director of the Healthy Smiles clinic which helps expose dental students to disabled patients. Parents of special needs individuals report the great difficulty in finding dentists. Mungo hopes to grow the ranks of dentists who will treat the population. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A framed piece of artwork created by a special needs patient hangs in Dr. Richard Mungo's office. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Mungo made a shadow box that shows kids how much sugar they consume when eating candy. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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An album shows photos of children Dr. Richard Mungo treated while doing volunteer work in Africa. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Dr. Richard Mungo treats both neurotypical and special-needs children in his pediatric practice in Huntington Beach. Athena Nailon, 9, is among the estimated 35 percent to 40 percent of Mungo's patients who have disabilities. PHOTOS: ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Dr. Richard Mungo, right, treats patient Eulyses Barajas, 18, center, who has cerebal palsey with the assistance of Olympia Gonzalez, left. Parents of special needs individuals report great difficulty in finding dentists. A large percentage of his own pediatric practice treats special needs children. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Cristina Barajas watches Dr. Richard Mungo treat her son Eulyses Barajas, 18, who has cerebral palsy. Her older son, Fernando, also was a patient. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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During the Fall Special Olympics in Fountain Valley in December, athelete Tryler Braley, left, of Yucca Valley stops to have dental students Marisa Watanabe, of Western University, and Brandon Pierce, of UCLA, check out his teeth. Dr. Richard Mungo is the program director of the dental arm of the Southern California Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Program which screens the athletes at events with the help of dental students. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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UCLA dental student Noha Nour demonstrates good tooth-brushing techniques to an athlete at the Southern California Fall Games. The dental students were part of the Southern California Special Olympics Healthy Athletes Program, which Dr. Richard Mungo of Newport Beach directs . ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Making O.C. smiles healthier

Dr. Richard Mungo, a longtime Lido Isle resident, brings some of his patients who are very young or in need of general anesthesia to Hoag Hospital, where he's been on staff at the Dental Division for 18 years.

The dentist has also been part of an Orange County Department of Education-MediCal consortium assisting with children with special health care needs. The work included time with Newport-Mesa School District, and he was recognized for his work by the Assistance League of Newport Mesa in 2008.

Often referring to his family as a special achievement, Mungo also serves as the dental adviser to the Newport Eagle Scouts. His wife, Kristin, volunteers with the Scouts, and their sons, Nicolas, 31, and Vincent, 27, participated. Mungo's wife won the Orange County Council's first Outstanding Woman Volunteer Good Scout Award in 2008, Mungo said.

Mungo is chairman of the board and medical director of Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, a nonprofit that screens and treats under- and uninsured children.

The Garden Grove-based service last year saw 33,000 children whose families couldn't pay for private or specialized dentistry, with services ranging from oral-health education to surgery. Patients included children with special health care needs.

•51.7 million school hours were lost in 2002 to dental-related illness and dentist visits. Poor children are 12 times more likely to lose whole or partial days than children in higher-income families.

•12.9 percent of U.S. Special Olympics athletes reported some form of oral pain; 25 percent had a form of untreated tooth decay.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – There are many barriers to ensuring that childrenwith special needs, such as autism, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, receive proper dental care.

Anxious during a procedure, they can bite down on a dentist's fingers or they can scream and kick. Maybe they can't brush their teeth for themselves, or their caregivers don't have money for surgery.

Newport Beach dentist Dr. Richard Mungo's dental office is designed to alleviate all that worry. Paintings and drawings by his patients – both those with and without special needs – hang on the walls in the sunny, game-filled waiting room and the open-plan exam room. Kids see that they're not alone, and their own procedure becomes less scary.

It's the job of a pediatric dentist to see to those patients by building a rapport with them, explaining slowly and clearly the work that needs to be done and occasionally providing sedation.

"For some of us, it's a passion. We just love doing it, and we do an awful lot of it," said Mungo, who has been in private practice in Huntington Beach since 1985.

Generally, pediatric dentists don't have to find transportation and funding for the patient, too, but that's Mungo's goal.

For Mungo, "doing an awful lot" means chairing the dental section of Children's Hospital of Orange County, teaching about craniofacial anomalies at USC and treating at his private practice what he estimates is the 35 percent to 40 percent of his patients who have disabilities.

He was asked to get the dental care program at the Special Olympics Southern California under way, and he has remained a clinical director there.

"Whether we're talking about oral health or general health or specific problems, kids that have other learning disabilities or stuff like that, there are safety nets out there for the underserved and underprivileged" in Los Angeles County through the Department of Public Health, Mungo said.

"We don't have that in Orange County for oral health," he said.

To meet that need, the Newport Beach resident helped found Healthy Smiles for Kids in Orange County in 2003, which last year performed around 8,000 surgeries on children who couldn't pay for the work they needed. Mungo is now the medical director and chairman of the board of the nonprofit.

The work of a pediatric dentist isn't much more challenging than that of the average dentist, Mungo said, but it requires being able to connect with the patient.

"You go to the dentist, you sit in the chair – you may not be happy to be there, but you're there – and they say open your mouth, sit still and do the work," he said.

"The work's easy; we all know how to do it, as far as dentists.

"But how do you do that on a moving target? How do you do it on a child that doesn't want to be there or doesn't have the understanding to accept your commands?"

Since first seeing the impact of pediatric work while abroad with the Navy dental corps in the 1970s, Mungo has worked on that connection, and other dentists – and patients – say he does a great job.

And it differs from regular dental work, he said, in that the relationship with his patients can be like family. Parents are reluctant to take their children elsewhere when the child has outgrown the service Mungo provides.

"It is a closer relationship sometimes because they appreciate what we do," he said. "The hugs and the tears and all that, when there's the separation, those are the moments you remember."

DENTISTS GET THEIR OWN ACTION AT SPECIAL OLYMPICS

The Special Olympics are often a real confidence booster for people with intellectual disabilities. But the games can also have a positive impact on their health.

Doctors and dentists with special training, such as Mungo, set up tents at the Special Olympics Southern California games, held in summer and fall. More than 70 dental students attended the last set of games, held in Orange County in December.

In about 25 minutes, the Special Smiles team screens each patient, makes them a mouth guard if they need (or want) one, reviews oral hygiene, applies a fluoride varnish to their teeth and refers them to a capable specialist as close to their home as possible.

Dentists say their job is as much about teaching hygiene to prevent tooth decay as it is enforcing it. But teaching special-needs patients how to floss is a time-consuming process that's hard to do at a typical dental office.

The Special Smiles tent at the Special Olympics offers "a one-on-one opportunity that would not be afforded in a typical private dental office," said Dr. Timothy Martinez, an associate dean at Western University of Health Services in Pomona. "I don't think you can spend 20 minutes explaining how to brush teeth. You don't really have that time."

The majority of the dental students staffing the tent in December were from Western University, which graduates its first class of dental students this year.

"We bring these students in and introduce them to this patient population. They get hooked," said Mungo, who first organized dental care for the Southern California games.

Southern California needs more pediatric dentists and those trained in helping special-needs patients, according to Mungo.

"We're hoping that when these students graduate and get into their practice, they're going to leave a segment of their practice open for this patient population," he said.

Krystle Rapisura graduates from Western this year. She has volunteered at the four Special Olympics events held over the past two years.

"It's definitely a different population than you get to treat on a normal basis, so I really feel like I'm making a change in their lives," Rapisura said. "Seeing them participate in their sports, some people can imagine that you always have to take care of them, but a lot of them are very high functioning and we forget they're able to do that."

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